Background

Timeline

1921 Apr 10: Hdn Panteleimon ordained to the priesthood. Hmk Panteleimon reflects on the difficulty of living the monastic life, and begins yearning for monastic silence. He met Ivan Andreevich Kolos, who wanted to become a monk. Together, they decided to earn a enough money to buy a plot of land - Hmk Panteleimon beginning work at Sikorsky Airplane Factory, Ivan continuing work at the parish.

1928: Land for monastery is purchased in Jordanville. Hmk Panteleimon continues to work until land paid off. Fr Jacob from St Tikhon's Monastery joins them.

1934: Bp Vitaly of Detroit was offered the abbacy of Holy Trinity Monastery, which was declined. Hmk Ilya (Gavriliuk), a carpenter, joined the monasterya nd assisted in preparing the materials for, and then building, a house church and a monastic residence with 16 cells.

1935 Spring: Church set up in the small monastic house. Dedicated to the Life-Giving Trinity.

1935 Pentecost: On the day after Pentecost, the consecration of the church and monastery was held, led by Bp Vitaly (Maximenko). At the end of the Liturgy, smoke was seen at the second floor of the monastic house. In a few hours, everything had burnt to the ground.

On the following day, Ivan Kolos was tonsured and given the name Joseph. The brethren of the monastery lived under the open sky and, relying on the help of God, undertook to rebuild the monastery.

Autumn: The brethren bought a two-storey house - larger, more comfortable and better quality than the first.

1940s: By the mid-1940s, Holy Trinity Monastery was able to repay the martgage for the house, finish the barn for 80 cattle, expand the dairy, gain another 200 acres of land, acquire all the needed farming equipment, and buy a linotype machine with a large, 16-station printing press, including Church Slavonic type.

1946: The brotherhood began building a grand, golden-cupola'd stone cathedral. A key benefactor of this project, Prof. Nikolai Nikolaevich Alexandrov, later joined the brotherhood.

1948: Abp Vitaly begins abbacy at Holy Trinity Monastery. Bp Seraphim prepares the headquarters for ROCOR in the USA. Bp Seraphim persuades Prince Belosselsky to donate land in Mahopac, and named the Kursk-Root Hermitage and gathering a small monastic brotherhood.

Church of St Job of Pochaev, located underneath the cathedral of the monastery, was consecrated.